Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/60

 38 THE DECLINE AND FALL misei-y of tliu tinu'S hnd reduced the i>obles and mati'ons of Rome to accept, without a blush, the benevolence of the church ; three thousand virgins received their food and raiment from the hand of their benefactor ; and many bishops of Italy escaped from the barbarians to the hospitable threshold of the Vatican, (xregory might justly be styled the Father of his country ; and such was the extreme sensibility of his conscience that, for the death of a beggar who had perished in the streets, he inter- dicted himself during several days from the exercise of sacer- dotal functions. II. The misfortunes of Rome involved the apostolical pastor in the business of peace and war; and it might be doubtful to himself whether piety or ambition prompted him to supply the place of his absent sovereign. Gregory awakened the emperor from a long slumber, exposed the guilt or incapa- city of the exarch and liis inferior ministers, complained that the veterans were withdrawn from Rome for the defence of Spoleto, encouraged the Italians to guard their cities and altars, and condescended, in the crisis of danger, to name the tribunes and to direct the operations of the |)rovincial troops. But the martial spirit of the pope was checked by the scruples of hu- manity and religion ; the imposition of tribute, though it was employed in the Italian war, he freely condemned as odious and oppressive ; whilst he protected, against the Imperial edicts, the pious cowardice of the soldiers who deserted a military for a monastic life. If we may credit his own declarations, it would have been easy for (jregory to exterminate the Lom- bards by their domestic factions, without leaving a king, a duke, or a count, to save that unfortunate nation from the ven- geance of their foes. As a christian bishop, he preferred the salutary offices of peace ; his mediation appeased the tumult of arms ; but he Avas too conscious of the arts of the Oreeks, and the passions of the Lombards, to engage his sacred promise for the observance of the truce. Disappointed in the hope of a general and lasting treaty, he presumed to save his country without the consent of the emperor or the exarch. The sword [AD. 593] of the enemy was suspended over Rome : it was averted by the mild eloquence and seasonable gifts of the pontiff, who com- manded the respect of heretics and barbarians. The saviour The uicrits of (ircgory were treated by the Byzantine court ofKome withrcproach and insult; but in thv;; attachment of a grateful people he found the purest reward of a citizen and the best right of a sovereign.*^^ SJ The iL'iiipoicil reign of Gregory I. is ably e.vposed by Sigonius in the first book de Regno Italiae. See his works, ton), ii. p. 44-75.